An organic EL element, which is a kind of light-emitting elements, comprises a pair of electrodes and at least one organic layer arranged between the electrodes. Provided as the at least one organic layer is at least one light-emitting layer which emits light. Here, “EL” stands for “Electro Luminescence.”
The organic EL element is formed by stacking layers such as electrodes and organic layers in a predetermined order. As a method for forming the organic layers, application processes whose steps are simple have been under study for use. A method for forming an organic layer using an application process initially applies a coating liquid containing a material to become the organic layer to a surface to form the organic layer thereon so as to form a film and then solidifies the coating liquid. This forms the organic layer.
The coating liquid can be applied by a nozzle equipped with a slit-shaped outlet for discharging a coating liquid, for example. Specifically, while the coating liquid discharged from the nozzle is in contact with the surface to form the layer, the nozzle or an object to be coated is swept relative to the other, whereby a band-shaped coating film can be formed. While one streak of band-shaped coating film is formed on the surface when the nozzle is provided with only one slit-shaped outlet, a plurality of band-shaped coating films can be formed by a nozzle provided with a plurality of slit-shaped outlets, for example. For instance, a plurality of band-shaped coating films can be formed by a nozzle in which one slit-shaped outlet is provided with one or a plurality of partitions in order to divide the outlet into a plurality of slit-shaped outlets (see, for example, Patent Literature 1).